Seventy-one dollars, after the bus fare and a small pharmacy charge.

The danger was real.

So was the rent.

I needed a way to survive the next week without letting Vincent Moretti become the person who controlled my life.

PART 6

The employment lawyer was named Leila Ortiz.

Her office occupied two cramped rooms above a print shop, and she had a stack of files taller than her desk lamp.

She listened to the story of my firing, the seventeen rejected applications, and the message about my reputation.